Trailer Dolly?

[Hiker]

I have a Scamp - my guess is it weighs at least 1500 lbs. I need to be able to push it up a small uphill grade on a hard packed dirt surface.
Any ideas on how difficult/easy this would be with a trailer dolly?

[Byron Kinnaman]

There's too many variables to determine. How smooth is the surface, how hard is the surface, how strong are you, how much of an incline. Only you can tell.

I'm an old guy and move my 13' Scamp around on a gravel area with a trailer dolly, but it's pretty flat. I have a bit of in incline coming up out of the street, I'm not sure I could get it up that.

[rabbit]

Pushing on a flat is overcoming inertia pure and simple as gravitational force is acting along a single vector intersecting the centre of the earth. On a slope as gentle as a false flat (very slight grade), gravity begins to act along two vectors, one of which intersects you. To the range of possibilities from difficult to easy, I'd add downright dangerous. I've been pinned between a small (empty) utility trailer and a truck. Limited amusement! Even a motorized traction dolly isn't able to push 3/4 ton uphill. I think it's possible that with two or three active and fit people on the tongue and another person to place chocks, first in front of one wheel and then the other and alternately thereafter, it's possible but not advisable to "row" or "scull" a small camper uphill. Of paramount concern is not whether you can move the trailer uphill but rather what happens IF you can't. Be safe.

jack

[Ron in BC]

I split the difference between struggling with a manual dolly and buying a powered commercial one by adding a winch motor to my manual dolly. I have an uphill situation and some rough ground. I could barely move it myself before and now I can. Works for me.

[Thomas G.]

Originally Posted by Ron in BC

I split the difference between struggling with a manual dolly and buying a powered commercial one by adding a winch motor to my manual dolly. I have an uphill situation and some rough ground. I could barely move it myself before and now I can. Works for me.

Great idea. You can get winches for 50 bucks at Harbor Freight.

[Hiker]

Originally Posted by Byron Kinnaman

There's too many variables to determine. How smooth is the surface, how hard is the surface, how strong are you, how much of an incline. Only you can tell.

I'm an old guy and move my 13' Scamp around on a gravel area with a trailer dolly, but it's pretty flat. I have a bit of in incline coming up out of the street, I'm not sure I could get it up that.

How easy/difficult would you say it is to move your Scamp in your gravel area?

It makes perfect sense that you cannot project what it would be like for me in my situation.

[Ken C]

There was that hand crank one posted here that goes up slope.

[Byron Kinnaman]

Originally Posted by Hiker

How easy/difficult would you say it is to move your Scamp in your gravel area?

It makes perfect sense that you cannot project what it would be like for me in my situation.

I'm a 70 year old, over weight out of shape guy and I don't have any trouble moving it around on the gravel. Gotta keep the dolly tires up to pressure and trailer tires up to pressure.
I pull the trailer out of it's nest when I want to hookup and push it back in when we're home.

[Hiker]

Originally Posted by Ken C

There was that hand crank one posted here that goes up slope.

Thanks for the selection. Looks like an excellent solution except for the $374 price.

[Hiker]

Originally Posted by Byron Kinnaman

I'm a 70 year old, over weight out of shape guy and I don't have any trouble moving it around on the gravel. Gotta keep the dolly tires up to pressure and trailer tires up to pressure.
I pull the trailer out of it's nest when I want to hookup and push it back in when we're home.

Thanks for the more detailed response. My main concern is a small, short rise going into the trailer port.

[Eddie Longest]

Overseas we had to back aircraft into their own shelters. Some of the shelters had winches mounted in the rear of the shelter. We would run out a cable and attach it to the aircraft and winch it back into the shelter.
You could mount a winch in back of your storage area and with a towing dolly on front you could winch it uphill into your storage shed. Some of their winches are fairly inexpensive at Harbor Freight.
Eddie

[Hiker]

Originally Posted by Eddie Longest

Overseas we had to back aircraft into their own shelters. Some of the shelters had winches mounted in the rear of the shelter. We would run out a cable and attach it to the aircraft and winch it back into the shelter.
You could mount a winch in back of your storage area and with a towing dolly on front you could winch it uphill into your storage shed. Some of their winches are fairly inexpensive at Harbor Freight.
Eddie

I was thinking of something similar. I have the hitch on the back of the Scamp for a bike rack and could use that to attach a come-along. I could sink some type of anchor in the ground behind the trailer space.

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by Hiker

Thanks for the selection. Looks like an excellent solution except for the $374 price.

Similar devices are available much cheaper; see the discussion in An alternative to a power trailer mover.

[dbailey]

I just bought one of the "similar devices" today... A Tow Tuff RTF-1500, rated for 1500 lb tongue weight, 5000 lb trailer weight. I'm unimpressed...

I hooked it up to my light weight tent trailer (1100 lbs dry, maybe 150 lbs tongue weight).

First, I don't see how it could handle 1500 lb tongue weight. The main unit is strong enough, but the height adjuster has too much play in it, and the locking pin doesn't seat well enough so as the adjuster flexes the pin works its way out. I don't know, but I feel if I used this on a trailer with significantly more tongue weight, it would fail altogether.

Second, it won't do what I need. I have a gravel drive way with very little (if any) slope. But the drive wheels are too small and hard -- they don't move the trailer, just dig into the gravel. It might work better on pavement, but how often do you have pavement in a campground?

So, it's probably going to be returned next weekend.

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by dbailey

I have a gravel drive way with very little (if any) slope. But the drive wheels are too small and hard -- they don't move the trailer, just dig into the gravel.

Any wheel on a dolly under the tongue has this problem to some extent, since it must be small to fit under the tongue and carries only a few percent of the trailer weight for traction. This is why "caravan movers" in Europe - where it seems more common to move trailers into tight spaces without the tow vehicle - work by driving the main wheels of the trailer.

References in previous discussions:
New fiberglass
Parking in a tight spot
Backing into narrow driveway.